Keep Calm... you are doing a great job!
Dear Parents,
As we begin day 3 I want to firstly say well done and thank you for your spirit and commitment at such an unsettling and tricky time. So much positivity is coming back to school and individual teachers by way of the website, thank you.
That said, we also feel the waves of stress and the messages of parents feeling overwhelmed and under pressure by everything that's happening and more particularly, the work being sent home for your child. I hope that the following message provides some perspective and a realignment of expectations
to support you going forward.
1) This is not home-schooling. This is an unprecedented emergency situation impacting on the whole world. Home-schooling is a choice, where you considered, you plan for it and you are your child's school teacher in whatever form you choose. This is, at best, distance learning. In reality, it's everyone trying to do their best.
2) You are, and always have been, your child's primary educator. If you decide to play outside, bake, or watch TV (educational or otherwise), then that is your choice. That is your right. There is nothing to stress or feel guilty about, just make sure please that you read, read, read and complete some arithmetic and lots of incidental learning, we bet you do lots of art and physical activity too - that’s ok.
3) To be honest, schools don't know what they're doing either. We had no notice, no preparation time and we were NOT told to 'continue to plan lessons as normal and just send them home' – that’s NOT possible. If it were, we'd all be out of a job! Teachers teach, but they have never had to do it from a distance before.
In a lesson they reframe learning on a minute by minute basis, change resources, support and have a range of tasks ready to support the many and varying learners in their class.
4) It is absolutely not possible to facilitate distance learning with a primary aged child and work from home at the same time. The very idea is nonsense, teachers get nothing else done in the day which is why they mark and plan at night. If you're trying to work from home and teach (and probably look after pets too!), stop now. You can certainly have activities where your child learns, but your focus is your job and survival. Again, these are unprecedented times. Stop trying to be superheroes.
5) It’s also quite tricky for teachers to plan for the children who are still in school, go to school and teach, plan for the following week for home and school based learners, learn new online systems, and respond and teach minute by minute with their own class online - as well as do the other tasks schools still require and support the learning and needs of their own children and family. Please be patient, we are all doing our very best as you are too.
Take care of yourselves
Miss Goodson